The Toronto Jews caught in a real life nightmare on Elm Street
"As has become the norm for many gatherings of Jewish people in Toronto, or any Israel-related event, the final location was withheld from registrants until the last moment and distribution was carefully controlled. This has become the norm since Oct. 7, 2023.
This is because protesters demonize all things Jewish and Israeli. They target Jewish schools, community centres, businesses, residential neighbourhoods, synagogues, Israeli government offices. All such places, to the pro-Palestine, pro-Hamas, leftist “progressives,” are equally offensive.
The location of the SSI meeting was leaked. An “emergency rally” was quickly organized, including a flyer featuring Israeli soldiers with red Xs over their eyes, which is activist code for marking them for death.
Karten entered the premises and climbed the stairs to the meeting room on the second floor where he would be speaking. Almost immediately, he heard shouting and there was a loud commotion, which turned out to be the beginning of what he described as an ambush.
He was surrounded by seven to 10 people dressed in what is called “black block” among seasoned protesters: clothing that obscures their gender and identities.
Some sported a keffiyeh — a uniquely patterned scarf that has been adopted by pro-Palestinian demonstrators globally as a sartorial sign of solidarity with the cause — worn around their necks, or as a mask covering their faces. Dark glasses were also worn by most of the individuals who had entered the building, concealing their eyes.
Several others dressed in protest chic had already entered the office space where the SSI group had gathered. The intruders were loud, threatening and not at all welcome.
“The organizers and some of the other students had come early,” Karten said in an exclusive interview with National Post. “I heard yelling behind me. I turned around and I saw two men charge at me. One of them was wielding a drill bit.” Karten managed to get inside and close the door, blocking their entry — at least for the moment.
He then noticed the other masked individuals inside. He signalled to his male friend, who was also scheduled to speak, that he should focus on protecting the students from the intruders who had already entered the meeting room. Karten could not let go of the door handle.
The two masked individuals — one holding a long drill bit — were unable to enter the meeting space as long as Kalten held the glass door shut. They then lunged at the door using their body weight — and the drill bit — to apply force to the door. The glass shattered. It was during this altercation that Karten was injured in three spots, including a deep laceration on his right forearm, which was later treated in hospital.
All the while, Karten said that the masked individuals were yelling, “Death to the IDF. Arrest him. War criminal. Kill him. Get him.”
But Karten did not cower. He attempted to prevent the masked man (as it turned out) wielding the drill bit from entering the premises. The attacker fled. Rather than pursuing him, Karten focused instead on protecting the students still trapped in the dangerous situation that was unfolding.
In the midst of all this, Karten asked OFlaherty to call 911. She said that the first responder who answered her call did not seem to not grasp the gravity of the situation. “This is a very serious, dangerous situation,” OFlaherty recalls saying, somewhat panicked. “You need to get people here immediately. This is not a protest, this is a lynching.”
The students — all female — were terrified. One experienced an epileptic episode and had to be rushed to hospital. Others were trying to hide under tables. There was blood. Additional “protesters” were trying to break into the office.
According to OFlaherty, they were saved by Karten’s quick thinking and decisive action. ”Jonathan is standing there like a superhero, literally blocking them. It was a very chaotic scene,” she said. It did not feel like your average protest … who brings a weapon unless they intend on using it?”
Even after police began to arrive, in stages, OFlaherty said that the protesters were not intimidated. “They weren’t even relenting once the police got there. They were desperate to get in and hurt us,” she said. “They were immovable. They were there for a purpose. There was no opportunity to deescalate, have a conversation.
“They were hitting the police officers. They were striking the police. They were trying to break through the police barricade.”
At one point, OFlaherty said that a police officer told her that by filming the violence she was “instigating,” and that her actions were “agitating” the protesters.
This odd approach by police has become a predictable feature of events where protesters target Jewish people. They are often told that their presence is a “provocation.” When I attended a rally in March outside the Toronto Courthouse at 361 University Ave., a police officer approached me and brusquely told me to go to “my side of the street.” I asked him why. He told me that by standing near the protesters I was “provoking” them.
I was wearing no clothing or outerwear to indicate what my religion or political views might be. I had said and done nothing. I stood, passively, watching. My intention was to write about the event, which I later did. I refused to enter the small area reserved for Jews, who were told to stand behind metal grates “for their own safety.”
Treating Jewish people in this manner has become a feature of policing in Toronto...
In the immediate aftermath of the Nov. 5 violence, according to Toronto police, five individuals were arrested and charged with forcible entry, unlawful assembly, obstructing a peace officer and assaulting a peace officer.
One week later, on Nov. 12, a sixth person, 26-year-old Qabil Ibrahim, was arrested following the execution of a search warrant on his residence. Ibrahim was charged with forcible entry, mischief, assault and unlawful assembly while masked.
Ibrahim had previously been arrested in April, after video surfaced of a protest outside the Israeli Consulate in Toronto, where he was alleged to have climbed atop scaffolding, set an Israeli flag on fire, doused it with some form of accelerant and then fled the scene, leaving others to extinguish the flames.
Ibrahim’s latest arrest, and the related attack on Jewish students, has attracted international attention to the way in which Toronto’s large Jewish community has been treated by law enforcement and politicians.
Karten has spoken all over the United States and was surprised by how charged Toronto is, and the way in which the event was handled. He said that police were very helpful but seemed uncertain as to how to manage the hostile crowd, at one point assembling inside as protesters amassed just outside the main entry door to the building...
Additional officers came later, but Karten said that those on the scene “were all standing around downstairs, inside, when the threat was outside and so were the attackers.” He suggested to the officers that more men were needed outside. “But they didn’t seem interested in dispersing the crowd,” said Karten. “I think maybe they were waiting for even more men to come before they would be willing to go outside.”
Speaking recently about police protocols in such contexts on Greg Brady’s radio show on AM 640, Clayton Campbell, president of the Toronto Police Association, made some interesting comments. He was responding to widespread concern regarding the manner in which police officers have responded to the near-constant violence targeting Jews in the city for more than two years.
Campbell lauded the hard work by police in what have been difficult circumstances. He specifically mentioned a recent report, titled “What we Heard,” that canvassed the views and morale of police officers. Campbell implored Jewish Torontonians not to express frustration with the officers when, in his view, any blame rests with the chief of police, Myron Demkiw, and other law enforcement and political leaders.
“Officers are fearful of making decisions because they’ll be blamed for decisions that aren’t supported” by police brass, said Campbell. What is needed, he stressed, are clear guidelines and rules for both police officers and demonstrators. Officers are “certainly not going to put themselves into a position where they’re only going to be thrown under the bus if the wrong decision is made,” he said.
It is interesting to note that Campbell did not mention the interests and safety of the Jewish individuals who may feel threatened in such circumstances. He did acknowledge that they are fearful and expressed regret about that, but stopped short of suggesting that their vulnerability factors into how such events are handled by law enforcement...
A quiet residential street in north Toronto was targeted by pro-Palestinian protesters, who came with drums, loudspeakers, flags, hateful signs and strutted down the street in a menacing, coarse manner. This is not the first time this particular street and neighbourhood have been targeted. One woman — whose family stood nearby — was videoed asking the loud, disruptive group to take their demonstration elsewhere.
Their response, as captured on video, was to tell her that they were on public property. After taunting the woman, asking if she teaches her “kids how to kill babies,” one man stops, stabbing the air as he points at her with his fingers and says, “You don’t own this. This is not occupied Palestine.”
A week later, a journalist in the same neighbourhood was told by a police officer to move and stand elsewhere, as he was attempting to cover another demonstration. “They don’t want you here,” the officer told the reporter, referring to the pro-Palestinian demonstrators. In the same clip, a demonstrator, emboldened by the police support, yells, “We don’t want you here.”
The preference of the loud, hateful mob, it would seem, carries the day with Toronto police.
And yet, curiously, the legitimate fears and concerns of the residents of the area do not seem to register with the officers. This manner of enforcement, which seems to prefer the “rights” of some over others, is perceived by many to have been a consistent feature of Toronto policing since October 7. As does the way in which the Elm Street incident was handled.
On Nov. 6, the Alliance of Canadians Combating Antisemitism issued a bulletin written by criminal lawyer Mark Sandler, discussing the Elm Street incident in a larger context. “Too often,” he wrote, “there is no room for true freedom of expression on university campuses (or apparently in relation to TMU, even off-campus) unless the expression adheres to anti-Israel orthodoxy.”
Asked why he travelled to speak in Toronto, Karten said it is important to expose students to the truth of what is transpiring in Israel and the Gaza Strip.
“I was talking about the war, explaining that it is not a genocide. We (the IDF) differentiate between combatants and civilians. (Soldiers) have been killed in battle because they spent extra time trying to differentiate between combatants and civilians. This is our policy,” he said.
In the aftermath of the Elm Street attack, Karten said he’s received countless death threats on social media. Meanwhile, in Toronto and elsewhere in Canada — home to the fourth-largest Jewish community in the world — the hostility continues, unchecked. It’s time for Canada to wake up."
Time to do more about Islamophobia. "Pro-Palestinian" "speech" cannot be censored
Left wingers claim that people's existence cannot be political, but that only applies to groups they approve of. They don't want people exposed to "harmful" views, so they shut down events
Of course, ICE being masked shows that they are evil Gestapo who need to keep their nefarious deeds secret, but pro-Palestinian rioters need to be masked to protect themselves from "Zionists"
